Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Enjoying D&D

Several things help me enjoy D&D more this round than back in the 80s.

Getting the idea that running older D&D is more about making rulings than looking up rules.

Having a over a decade of reenactment and boffer live-action rpg experience which helps me describe and referee combat better which is important considering how abstract D&D combat is.

I simply improved as a referee and know more stuff to make interesting and memorable encounters. Because of the nature of the D&D rules, I do more of my thinking is on the details of the encounter rather than looking stuff up.

The wealth of material to draw on when I am pressed for time is staggering.

Having my house rules in a printed form, the Majestic Wilderlands, has been really helpful. Even you don't want to be a publisher I recommend using Lulu to print up your own collection. Or if you don't have a lot, use the local copy store to make a bound copy.

3 comments:

I've been using my printer and the Ring Binding that staples has to do my houserules and notes as I play. It's worked out really well for me because I can do my prototypes really rapidly and keep them updated as I go. If I make a ruling or change my mind I can just reprint that section instead of the whole thing.

Bat in the Attic Games

How to make a Sandbox

The Old School Renaissance

To me the Old School Renaissance is not about playing a particular set of rules in a particular way, the dungeon crawl. It is about going back to the roots of our hobby and seeing what we could do differently. What avenues were not explored because of the commercial and personal interests of the game designers of the time.

What are RPGs?

A game where the players play individual characters interacting with a setting with their actions adjudicated by a human referee.

Rules are an aide to help the referee adjudicate actions and to help the players interact with the setting.

Dice are used to inject uncertainty which make a tabletop RPG campaign more interesting than "Let's Pretend".

The only thing a player needs to do to roleplay a character is to act if he or she was really there in the setting in that situation.